


SwappedFate- A Dreamtale AU

by ShandyCandy278



Series: Undertale One-Shots [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Brothers, Dream's a jerk, Everyone can be a hero, I love them so much, Role Models, Support, SwappedFate- Alternate Universe, These precious boys, self deprication
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-02-01 22:19:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21246050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShandyCandy278/pseuds/ShandyCandy278
Summary: After an encounter with his brother Dream, Nightmare sought shelter in the woods to heal himself. A stranger appeared, asked to listen to his story, and offered some advice that maybe- just maybe- can help him see what he could become.
Series: Undertale One-Shots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587931
Comments: 14
Kudos: 88





	SwappedFate- A Dreamtale AU

**Author's Note:**

> SwappedFate is an AU that was created by xX-AVJ-Xx, who you can find on DeviantArt ( https://www.deviantart.com/xx-avj-xx ) and Tumblr ( https://xx-avj-xx.tumblr.com/ ). They gave me permission to write a story on it, and I highly suggest checking out the AU!
> 
> They're also entering a tough-spot and are in need of some money. If you can, be sure to donate to help them!
> 
> I hope you enjoy the story!

It was supposed to be the other way around.

_He _was the guardian of the Negative Apples for a reason. _He _was the one who was supposed to slowly succumb to darkness. He knew that everyone had expected it. Everyone had planned on him being the one to partake of the apples.

_No one_ had planned for Dream to do it.

Wounded from a fight with his brother, Nightmare slowly fell to his knees, leaning up against a tree and sucking in a deep, pained breath.

Ever since Dream had eaten all of the negative apples, they had been at ends with each other. They fought almost every time they crossed paths, which was (surprisingly) often.

He kept on trying to talk the other down, but the black apples must have made him crazed to the point that he wouldn’t be able to do _anything _to calm him. Dream was convinced that Nightmare was the one who fell, not Dream. There was nothing he could do to get the other to see otherwise.

And now that his fate had been taken by his brother, where did that leave him? 

The Hero?

“Pff, yeah right.” He grunted to himself.

Him being the hero was a laughable idea. That was why he was supposed to be the bad guy when this happened. 

He realized, yet again, that he had no idea who he was now. Something about it reminded him about a warning against planning for your future, because ‘you never know where life is going to take you’, and he almost wished he had listened to that advice. He was left with nothing, now. He didn’t have a home, or a future to go to. Dream had taken that away from him.

Maybe he should have fallen to the Darkness sooner. He had always been proud of the fact that he had guarded the dark apples, but maybe if he hadn’t tried milking every precious moment of sanity left, Dream wouldn’t have fallen.

He let out a pained sigh, closing his eyes. He needed to stop dwelling on this and try to heal himself. Who knew when Dream might decide to actively hunt him down.

“Ow, Owow_owowuh-“_ He hissed in pain as he stretched his legs out, taking in a deep breath and holding it. When he was done moving he let the air go, relaxing a little. Now it would be easier to heal.

He started with his right arm first- he had a crack that was threatening to split his ulna if he didn’t. His eyes glowed as his lilac magic came to aid him. He placed his left hand on top of the fracture and withheld himself from screaming. His magic slowly wrapped around the wound, the pain ebbing away ever so slowly. When he was done he experimentally moved it around. It didn’t hurt anymore- at least, not as badly as it had been. Now he needed to focus on the rest of his wounds.

At one point while he was working, he heard something. It was a simple snap of a twig, but it had him standing up and summoning his spear. He held it up high, looking around the forest.

“I know you’re there!” He didn’t. “Come out, hands where I can see them!”

“Woah, there!” A glitched voice responded. “I mean you no harm, just wanted to check up on you. You were pretty wounded from whatever fight you came from.”

“I said, come out!”

“Uh, not sure if that’s a good idea. Most people run away from me.”

“Why would they run away from you?” Nightmare asked, warily eyeing the greenery around him.

“They keep on mistaking me for someone else. Don’t know who.” Some bushes to the right moved, and a figure emerged from them. 

The first thing he noticed was the bright blue scarf that was wrapped around his neck. He had a red shirt under black suspenders, with a black jacket wrapped around his waist. Much to Nightmare’s surprise, he had Black bones and weird, plus-sign markings by the corner of his eyes. 

His forearms were red- the same kind of red that surrounded his eyelights. The said eyelights were interesting- the one on the right was a simple white one, but the left one was a yellow diamond that had a blue diamond in it that had a black diamond in that. Or something like that. His hands were in the air with black gloves on them, and hanging off his back was a black pen with a blue holographic circlet by where an eraser would be on a pencil. Glitches covered his form, flickering to and fro.

“… You don’t look familiar to me.” Nightmare concluded, relaxing a little.

“Oh! Sweet!” The strange skeleton pumped his fist. Then he struck a heroic pose- almost perfectly, actually, and he spoke with a grand wave of his hand. “I’m Template, Guardian of All Universes! It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

“Guardian?” Nightmare muttered. “Like the one that Dream was supposed to become…”

“Dream?” The skeleton- Template, Nightmare reminded himself- tilted his head. “Who’s that?”

“My brother.” Nightmare hung his shoulders a little, allowing his spear to turn back into a staff. He leaned back against the tree, glancing up at the sky. It was getting light, soon he wouldn’t be able to see the stars. 

He had loved star-gazing with his brother, but now… 

“It’s… a long story.”

“Oh, don’t worry! I can listen!” Template walked further out of the bushes and sat down. “I want to know _everything_.”

“Well… okay.” Nightmare cleared his throat as he sat down, bringing up a memory that felt much older than it was, and a story he always told with it. “Once upon a time, there was a woman who sat as Guardian for the tree of feelings. The tree bore two fruits. Both of them granted immortality and the ability to sense what others felt, but were two opposite ends of the spectrum.” He held up his right hand, smiling. “The Golden Apples- the ones that held the positive feelings,” And then the left one, the smile turning bittersweet. “And the Black ones- the ones that held the negative feelings.”

“One day,” He let his arms fall. “The woman lost her life to a greedy people who wished for nothing but immortality. She died pinned to the tree, and slowly being consumed by it’s magic. In her last moments, she used her magic to create two spirits- one for each side of the tree. A human body could not contain them, so she reached out for the closest reality to hers and gave them skeletal ones. She gave them all of the information she could, and just before she was gone forever, she told the two of a prophecy.”

“‘The temptation is high,’ She said. ‘And one day, one of you will fall to darkness. One day, one will take part of the fruit, and when that day comes, the desire for people to come to the tree will be no more’.” Nightmare could almost see the children sitting before him- staring at him in awed horror.

_“Don’t worry,”_ He wanted to say. _“I’m the Proud Guardian of The Black Apples. So long as I’m here, you’ll be safe.”_

But before him no longer sat a child, but some weird, glitchy skeleton that was clearly capable of taking care of himself. And no longer did he sit at the base of the tree of feelings, for it had withered and died long ago.

So he bit back his tongue, cleared his throat, and continued.

“I, being the Guardian of the Negative side, was expected to fall. I decided that I wouldn’t take any moment that I had for granted- that I’d live life and savor every second of it before that happened. I… don’t know what had gotten into him- he believed that I was supposed to be the one to fall too, but Dream had decided to eat the dark apples first. He fulfilled the role of the prophecy that I was supposed to fill, and now I just… don’t know what to do.” Nightmare raised his hands to his head, running them through non-existent hair.

That was the problem. Whenever he crossed paths with Dream, everything felt so wrong that he didn’t know what to do. Even now, in the aftermath of one of their battles, he still couldn’t make heads or tails out of it.

“Doesn’t that make you the hero now, though?” Template asked, confused.

“What?” Nightmare blinked, and then instantly shook his head. “No, I can’t be the hero. I was never meant to be it. _Dream _was. I can’t fill out a role I wasn’t destined for.”

“What on Earth do you mean?!” Template exclaimed, waving one of his hands in the air. “Anyone can be a hero if they want to!”

“I don’t know-”

“I wasn’t a hero until I wanted to be one.”

They sat in silence after the small confession. Template continued with a small smile.

“I’ve _always _wanted to be one though, so I understand the confusion.” He laughed as he continued. “You see, I’m not the original guardian of the Universes. I want to be just as good as he is, though. I fight with myself a lot to do it.” He practically beamed, looking off somewhere that didn’t seem to hold any specific purpose. 

“His name’s Ink, and… and he’s _awesome_! He does everything so flawlessly and he’s so artistic! Just because I don’t look like a hero doesn’t mean that I can’t be one!” He hummed, bringing his hand to his chin in thought. Then he snapped his fingers. “I know! You need a role-model!”

“A… role model?”

“Yeah!” Template sprang to his feet, mumbling to himself as he drummed his fingers on his large stylus-pen-thingy. “I know! The original Dream!”

“The… original?”

“Well, you said that you were supposed to be the one who fell to darkness, right?” With a nod, Template continued. “That means that somewhere out there, there was a version of you who fell to Darkness! And that means that there must’ve been a Dream that became the hero!”

“Yeah?” Nightmare smiled a little, glad that at least some version of him followed the fate originally set for them.

“Yeah!” Template’s excited smile grew knowing, and he pointed a finger at Nightmare in a positive way that made his hopes rise. “And you know what? I bet that the Original Dream would want you to fight for your brother! I bet that he would be cheering you on and that he’d believe in you no matter what!”

It sounded _ridiculous, _and he hardly believed that any version of Dream would actually believe that, but…

It actually made him feel good.

He frowned.

“I don’t think I’m fit to try and impersonate him…”

“You’re not impersonating him!” Template huffed, stomping his foot lightly. “You’re looking up to him. You’re never going to actually become him, but you can do the best you can! Be _inspired!”_

Inspired, huh…?

Nightmare thought for a moment, pondering upon the other skeleton’s words. Then he smiled- bittersweet, but full of hope and a sense of… belonging.

He might not have been inspired by a heroic version of Dream, given that the only one he knew was currently trying to end his life, but…

The skeleton in front of him, Template, was inspiring in his own kind of way. Nightmare liked it.

“Then I don’t want to be called Nightmare anymore.” He decided.

“What?” Template frowned. “But you’re not-”

“I’m not impersonating the Original. I won’t take my brother’s name.” A few seconds later, it clicked in his head. 

_‘But I can be an illusion.’_ He thought. _‘An illusion of the hero he should have become.’_

Confused, Template remained quiet. It took a moment longer before Nightmare nodded, confidence flowing through him as he made his choice.

He stood up and walked towards Template, staff disappearing and hand outstretched friendly. “Maybe a proper introduction is in order, then. Hello, Template- I’m Illusion. It’s nice to meet you.”

Template’s fingers twitched at the friendly offer, and Illusion almost took back the hand with a nervous laugh when he moved. Template’s hands were shaking with what was no doubt anxiety as it slowly reached for his. A fear of touch…?

Finally, their hands met in a small and gentle handshake that only lasted three seconds. Template smiled- nervous, but completely overflowing with joy. It made Nightmare want to smile, too.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Illusion.”

So smile he did.


End file.
